


awakening, quietly

by dridri93



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Injury Recovery, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28205928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dridri93/pseuds/dridri93
Summary: Kix blinked awake to a familiar sight, if at an unfamiliar angle. The main medbay lights dully illuminated the blank white walls, and Kix had a far better view of said lights than normal.Unfortunate.
Relationships: CT-5597 | Jesse/CT-6116 | Kix
Comments: 18
Kudos: 91
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars, Soft Wars Fic Exchange





	awakening, quietly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [babycow29](https://archiveofourown.org/users/babycow29/gifts).



> This gift is for babycow29! I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> I went trawling through prompt lists for a good idea and found this one:  
>  _"How do you feel?"_  
>  _"Like I've been stabbed."_  
>  And my brain added _"There's a good reason for that."_ in the Tired Medic Voice known a galaxy over. Once I had that, Kix took the reins.
> 
> This is technically in the Soft Wars universe created by Project0506 by way of a few references made (bouncy bombs, I love them so), so all credit to Projie for that! As far as I know, Poke is my (brand-new) 501st shiny medic OC, but if it sounds like I may have accidentally snarfed your OC through osmosis, comment below and I'll credit you!

Kix blinked awake to a familiar sight, if at an unfamiliar angle. The main medbay lights dully illuminated the blank white walls, and Kix had a far better view of said lights than normal.

It hurt. They were very bright.

His eyes closed without his permission, and the darkness helped. The throbbing behind his eyes sunk to a dull pound, rather than a hammering crescendo. The drop in his headache made his other aches and pains more obvious.

Unfortunate.

He had a bad feeling he was in the medbay for the wrong reason this time. He patted his side and the coarse sheets under his finger confirmed it.

Well, kriff.

“Kix?” he heard, “You awake?” The voice wasn’t Coric – not enough exhaustion – and wasn’t quiet enough to be one of the shinier medics who hadn’t learned to be firm yet.

“Hnng,” he moaned. His throat sparked a new pain – joy. Kix dared to crack open one eye. The medbay lights had dimmed over his bed, blessedly. He looked around, moving as little as possible.

Jesse’s face swam into view on his right side. “How do you feel?” his riduur asked.

Kix grunted, taking a moment to assess. He could wiggle all his extremities – good – and most of his body felt free of major injuries, if battered. Except for high on the outside of his thigh – clear from any major arteries, also good – which screamed in a very familiar way when he tensed it. “Like I’ve been stabbed,” he croaked.

Coric appeared at the side of his bed – when had that happened? What drugs was he on? – and huffed. Exhausted as usual then, possibly more so due to Kix’s injury. Kix tried to make a contrite face, but mostly felt like he’d pulled off ‘somewhat high and confused about it’. “There’s a good reason for that,” Coric said, “seeing as you’ve been stabbed. By shrapnel. You’re damned lucky it missed the hip joint.”

Kix grunted his understanding and got a cup of ice chips and a raised bed for his trouble. His hip protested the motion required to raise himself somewhat upright loudly, but Kix managed to keep his reaction to a wince. “Bacta?” he asked, not seeing a patch on his hip, instead seeing only a pressure bandage covering what felt (and itched) like stitches.

“Supplies got low,” Coric confirmed. “Your injury wasn’t life-threatening, so you got Poke’s gentle care. We’re on course for a resupply within the next shipboard day.”

Kix nodded, sucking on an ice chip to wash the cotton of pain meds and medbay sleep out of his mouth. At least he could be sure Poke’s stitches would be neat, wouldn’t catch on his blacks. Speaking of – “When can I get out of here?” he asked.

He heard Jesse shift on his other side and looked over. His riduur had covered the lower half of his face with one gloved hand – still armored? How long had he been waiting? – and his eyes crinkled at the corners like he was smiling.

“What?” he asked. “Better to free up the bed.” Just in case some other di’kut in Torrent managed to light their own shebs on fire doing some crazy stunt. Kix still remembered the development phase for the bouncy bombs.

Coric sighed. “You know you only outrank me when you’re fully functional, right, Lieutenant?” he asked. “I remember having this conversation over this exact bed. Multiple times.”

Kix could hear Jesse stifling a laugh. He’d get his riduur back for that one. Conversations held while he was high on pain meds shouldn’t be held against him. “I remember,” he said, “Doesn’t mean I want to sit on my shebs in here when I could be on my shebs in my own bunk.”

Coric shook his head. “How about this. If you can get yourself upright, I’ll let Jesse escort you to your bunk. But _only_ if you can get yourself upright without popping a stitch.”

That sounded like a compromise Kix could accept. Now he just had to get himself upright.

Easier said than done. Coric potentially had a good point. Kix got far enough that he could support the weight of his torso on his arms outstretched behind him, but trying to swivel his hips to swing his legs off the bed made his upper thigh scream. He hissed “Kriff,” as he relaxed back down.

“Kixy?” Jesse asked, his hands outstretched as if to help him, “Okay?”

Kix grimaced, feeling Coric’s judgment without needing to see the eyebrow raised. “Not my best idea,” he admitted. “Might have to stay overnight after all.”

Jesse hummed, taking one of Kix’s hands in his. “I’d rather you heal up right,” he said. “Need to be able to walk to scrap clankers.”

Kix checked the chronometer on the wall – nearly twenty-four hours since he remembered deploying, and nearly time for the shipboard night cycle. “You should go to the bunks, Jess,” he said. “You need your sleep, too. How long have you had your shell on?”

Jesse hummed noncommittally. Too long, then. Probably starting to smell ripe under the plates, definitely starting to pinch at the skidplate.

“Go shower, Jess,” Kix said quietly. “Get cleaned up. I’ll still be here when you don’t smell like blasterfire and overripe blacks.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of Jesse’s armored hand, feeling the minute scratches in the plate from where it rubbed on the rocks when Jesse laid down in a sniper’s nest.

Jesse grumbled under his breath, but straightened up with the click of plastoid and too-long-immobile joints. “I’ll be right back, Kixy,” he promised, and Kix believed him.

Kix watched Jesse leave before turning to look back at Coric, who’d been remarkably quiet. The “I told you so” emanating from Coric’s face made him wince. “In my defense,” Kix said, “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

Coric’s eyebrow rose once again, joined by the second. “You think I’d have recommended you stay in this medbay, which every medic in the 501st knows you _despise_ lying in, if I didn’t think it was the most medically sound option?”

Kix slumped back to the bed, letting his silence speak volumes. His eyelids felt heavy, so he closed them. He’d hear Jesse come back in from his shower, if Jesse decided to come back to the medbay instead of going to the bunks like he should.

Kix opened his eyes again, surprised at how heavy his eyelids were, to find the medbay much darker than when he’d closed them. He’d slept, apparently.

He looked over to find Jesse, in only his blacks, slumped in the chair at his bedside, like a di’kut. He knew Kix wouldn’t have kicked him out of the bed, and he still took the chair.

Probably to keep from waking Kix up, like the soft di’kut he could be.

“Jesse,” he hissed under the ambient sounds of the medbay, “get your shebs up here before you end up stuck that way.”

Jesse startled, almost falling out of the chair, and looked up. He grinned when he saw Kix awake, and Kix managed, with valiant effort, not to melt at the sight. “Kix!” Jesse said, quietly enough that Kix didn’t have to remind him to keep it down. “You’re awake!”

“For now,” Kix said. “Now get up here, you’re giving me a neck crick in sympathy.” Kix tried to scoot himself sideways to give Jesse more room, forgetting that his upper thigh was still very much injured. He hissed out a breath and Jesse jumped up, grabbing at his hand, which had fisted in the sheets around his hips.

“Easy, Kixy,” Jesse whispered, “Take it easy. Twelve hours ‘til resupply, then we can get you some bacta and get back to our bunk.”

Kix sighed and relaxed back into the bed. He hated this. “Get up here,” he sighed. “This bed’s cold.”

Jesse hummed, smiling. “Let me help,” he offered.

Kix nodded, relenting. “Just help me shift over to give you room.”

“I’ll do you one better.” Jesse moved to the other side of the bed, the side where Kix’s thigh throbbed angrily at his attempt at movement. He put his hands under Kix’s body and gently rolled Kix up onto his good side, holding his thigh steady and grabbing a spare pillow to tuck between Kix’s feet to keep his spine aligned.

Kix felt his throat tighten with emotion at his riduur’s gentle touch. Little gods, but he loved this man. He felt Jesse tuck into the bed behind him, grabbing the arm Jesse threw over his chest and tucking it to his heart. The feeling of Jesse’s breath warm on the nape of his neck worked the last of the tension out of his shoulders.

He could already imagine the face Coric would make when he came back into medbay in the morning. But he didn’t care. He had his riduur with him, and he’d heal. He could take a little ribbing from his second.

Kix slipped back to sleep feeling the thrum of Jesse’s heartbeat against his back, the twitch of Jesse’s fingers as he dreamed. Morning would come, and bacta with it. For now, he could sleep in the warmth of his riduur’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or a kudos if you enjoyed! <3


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